An advice till the censorship of science by the directorate of the Centraal Planbureau is lifted

When Anne Frank returns to haunt you

Please read the earlier entry They knew about Anne Frank to refresh your memory. Then watch this video of April 25 2014 in which Bart van der Boom of Leiden presents his view again. The video is in Dutch, and if you cannot understand that, try to explain to the Dutch people that they would be wise to switch to English or at least provide subtitles. (And why don’t we all switch to Latin ?)

Van der Boom’s case is that the Dutch including the Jewish inhabitants had heard the statements about the extermination of the Jews, even in a broadcast in 1942 by Queen Wilhelmina, but didn’t know what to think of it. Van der Boom concludes that they didn’t really know.

He for example points to Anne Frank who apparently mentioned that she has heard about gas chambers but who at another point is furious about the maltreatment of Jews in Poland, as if the latter is worse than the former, or as if the gas chambers are only a rumour and not reality.

Van der Boom confuses knowledge and certainty.

As I expained in that earlier entry, the proper issue is cognitive dissonance.

I am tempted to print the email that I sent him with my comment while linking to the earlier entry. But it is Dutch and may stop the flow of the argument. Van der Boom’s new presentation in the video neglects my comment and is a continuation of his error. This is disingenious.

He also uses the Jews as his prime example. The image that we can agree on is that they sat as rabbits looking at the bright light coming towards them. This is effective rhetorics. It now becomes their own fault. But this is the wrong proposition. You cannot use victims as the prime evidence since people who are hunted down are less able to think clearly. You should focus on the main population that had more time to think.

If their beloved Queen spoke about the extermination of the Jews, why did the Dutch not use this piece of knowledge to research this further and turn it into certain knowledge ? This is the proper accusation, and it sticks.

The Dutch of 1939-1945 were disingenious and wrong, and their new hero is Bart van der Boom.